Anand finishes third at Linares

A dramatic final round at 2005 Linares Super Grandmasters chess tournament came to an end on Thursday.

The two unbeaten players in the tournament, Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand both lost their last round games, and then as Kasparov was announced winner of the tournament after a tie-break with Veselin Topalov, Kasparov announced his retirement from chess.

NIIT Brand Ambassador Anand lost his final round to Michael Adams. Meanwhile, Topalov, who had a chance to catch up with Kasparov with a win in the final round, did just that, but Kasparov took the title on the basis of a tie-break which decided him as a winner as he had won more games with black, although both had same points and same number of total wins.

Topalov and Kasparov had eight points each, and Anand ended third with 6.5 points.

Anand had a weak final three rounds, during which he barely saved the game against Vallejo Pons and then took a quick draw with Kasparov and finally lost to Adams. His final game was a Queen's Indian and Anand lost a pawn through a blunder and Adams who so far had a fairly under-par tournament, got a least-expected win.

Anand looked a little listless and did not seem at his best as he lost the form in the last stages of the tournament. His loss to Adams came in 57 moves.

In the final game, a Sicilian Rossolimo, Kasparov was faced by a Topalov novelty. But Kasparov equalised the advantage before losing the thread of the game and going down to a pretty bad loss. It also turned out that Kasparov intended to announce his retirement at the end of the event.

The third game of the day saw Peter Leko draw with Vallejo Pons in 67 moves from another Sicilian.

Moves of Anand's game:

Anand v Adams

2005 Linares Super GM chess Rd 14.

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.c4 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 8.Bc3 d5 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.Nd2 0-0 12.0-0 Rc8 13.e4 b5 14.Re1 dxe4 15.Bxe4 bxc4 16.Nxc4 Nb6 17.Nxb6 axb6 18.Qc2 h6 19.a4 Qc7 20.Red1 Rfd8 21.Rac1 Qa7 22.Bb2 b5 23.Ra1 bxa4 24.bxa4 Bf6 25.Qd2 c5 26.d5 Bxb2 27.Qxb2 Bb7 28.Qe5 Qa8 29.a5 Bxd5 30.Bxd5 exd5 31.a6 d4 32.Rd3 Rd7 33.h4 Qa7 34.Rb3 c4 35.Rb4 c3 36.Qf5 g6 37.Qd3 c2 38.Rc1 Rc3 39.Qd2 Qxa6 40.Rxc2 Qc6 41.Rbb2 Kh7 42.Qd1 h5 43.Kh2 Rc7 44.Rxc3 dxc3 45.Rc2 Qe4 46.Rc1 Kg7 47.Rc2 Rc8 48.Rc1 Rc5 49.Kg1 Kh7 50.Qd6 Rf5 51.Qd7 Rf3 52.Qa7 Qd5 0-1

 Results of Round 14: Topalov beat Kasparov; Anand lost to Adams; Leko drew with Vallejo Pons. Rest Day: Kasimdzhanov

Final Standings: 1. Kasparov  and Topalov 8.0 (Kasparov winner on tie-break); 3. Anand 6.5; 4. Leko 6.0; 5. Adams 5.5; 6. Vallejo Pons 4.0; 7. Kasimdzhanov 4.0.